Akwa Ibom State governor, Umo Eno, has inaugurated a dialysis centre donated by the Pastor Enoch and Mrs Folu Adeboye Foundation at Immanuel General Hospital in Eket local government area of Akwa Ibom State.
He pledged to emulate the founder of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) by building same health facilities in the 10 federal constituencies in the state.
LEADERSHIP gathered the state government’s intervention became necessary for patients with renal failures to have easy access to medication given the recent alarm raised by the state chapter of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) of increasing cases of kidney ailments due to fake and unwholesome drugs ravaging the state.
Towards this end, the governor has directed the immediate commencement of recruitment and training of health professionals to meet the manpower needs of the Dialysis centres which are expected to be fully operational by June 2024.
Besides, the governor ordered the deployment of relevant personnel from the state public hospitals to the Dialysis centre to ensure that the facility is not underutilized due to lack of personnel.
He said, “I am directing the commissioner for health and critical stakeholders to ensure that they provide a dialysis centre in each of the 20 federal constituencies and guarantee me that between now and June 2024, those dialysis centres will be available and functional.
“I have already approved deployment of staff to the centre. I had given the commissioner for health approval to headhunt for qualified people to come and work here. I have also directed the Head of the Civil Service (HoS) to work with the Ministry of Health and the Civil Service Commission (CSC) to absorb them as quickly as possible so that we can have permanent staff here. We don’t want to have equipment here, yet we don’t have the manpower to operate them.”
He made a case for aggressive sensitization on kidney related ailments and measures to checkmate its occurrence, even as he directed that the Ministry of Health collaborates with the Ministry of Information and office of the Chief Press Secretary (CPS), to undertake the sensitisation process.
Describing the dialysis facility provided as critical healthcare intervention, Governor Eno urged other religious and business organisations to emulate such robust corporate social responsibility gesture, assuring the readiness of his administration to partner in such direction.
Pastor Adeboye who was represented by the RCCG intercontinental overseer, Christian Social Responsibility (CSR), Pastor Idowu Iluyomade, said the church, driven by passion for humanity and need to bring help to people afflicted by the scourge of kidney diseases has through the ‘His Love Foundation’, set up 12 dialysis centres across Nigeria, and was pleased to set the 13th in Eket, Akwa Ibom State, amongst other humanitarian interventions.
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